Hyundai Heavy employees rejoin Metal Workers’ Union

Industry

Hyundai Heavy employees rejoin Metal Workers’ Union

Hyundai Heavy Industries’ internal labor union voted to rejoin the Korean Metal Workers’ Union after a 12-year absence.

Among the troubled shipbuilder’s 14,400 union members, 80.9 percent voted and 76.3 percent of participants approved the move.

HHI’s labor union organized 15 strikes this year, mainly against the company’s restructuring plan to divide business sectors into six companies, which for workers implied a major slimdown. The company already discharged 2,000 workers through voluntary retirement program this year.

The decision to join the labor alliance is interpreted as the HHI union’s move to gain strength against the company, which has already started restructuring.

The Korean Metal Workers’ Union is an industrial union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, open for anyone engaged in Korea’s metal industry.